Yeah, I've seen those straw men. What I am still waiting to see are lists of the top 50 sporting events in any given year. My thought is any such list will mirror the chart you provided that runs from 1986; i.e., relative to events that draw higher ratings, the Indy 500 will remain where it basically always has. No revelation there.
-The Nothing To See Here Folks Disciple of INDYCAR
Check out the momentum NASCAR gets from Daytona. The 2nd and 3rd highest rated races are races #2 and 3 of the season (immediately following Daytona). Only the May Talladega race also makes the top 50 list.
They lose their momentum at Bristol, oddly enough. During the NCAA BB tourney (and Sebring too!)
edit:
looks like there were Hurricane Irene issues that bounced Bristol to ESPN2 in a bunch of TV markets this year
Last edited by SoundMan360; 07-15-2012 at 09:04 AM.
What you're seeing is actual TV ratings data. It shows the Indy 500 ranked among top major sporting events in 1995. It also shows that it did not in 2000.Originally Posted by Disciple
Yes, the chart will mirror the chart I posted. Because they represent the same data. What is missing is the other 25 football games that likely do populate the top 50 from most years.
Bottom line: pre-split the Indy 500 ranked well into the top 50 most watched sporting events.
Post-split it does not.
You may draw your own conclusion from these facts. Gleeful bliss is certainly an option.
Stop it.
From 1974 until 1995 the Indy 500 held a higher relative position on than the Daytona 500 in 18 of 22 years. It exceeded the Kentucky Derby in 7 years and was within a stones throw most other years.
People complain that negativity is hurting this sport. The reality is that denial and baseless positivity is preventing this sport from attempting any return to glory.
Randy Bernard took the PBR from being a nothing sport to a small time sport and hit the ceiling for the PBR's potential. That was great for PBR, but it is small time for a real sport.
The Indy 500 is nowhere near it's potential. Even if you buy into the idea that splintering of viewing options prevents the 500 from achieving it's previous viewership levels (Despite other sports maintaining their positions and growing). The minimum entitlement cannot be less than the Daytona 500 in any year.
Here's your data:
Year Daytona 500 Derby Indy 1974 10.9
16.4 1975 11.8 18.9 14.96 1976 12.8 17.5 17.9 1977 12.9 14.9 15.6 1978 11.8 17 13.4 1979 10.5 16 13.5 1980 8 15.4 13.8 1981 8.4 16 12.8 1982 9.4 14.1 12.5 1983 8.7 14.5 14.1 1984 8.7 12.9 12.9 1985 8.3 10.9 9.7 1986 8.4 13.6 6.6 1987 9.4 11.6 11 1988 7.4 9 8.5 1989 8.1 11.6 7.8 1990 7.3 10.1 8 1991 7.6 8.3 8 1992 9.3 8.9 10.9 1993 8.4 7.3 9.3 1994 9.6 7.5 9.1 1995 7.8 6 9.4
- The non-hypocritical brakeearly of INDY who makes data supported statement unlike someone who throws out abject falsehoods then demands data of those who point out his lack of foundation.
Stop it
You are the one who made the claim that any such list will show Indy 500 in the same relative position without any data to support it. Don't demand that the rest of us scour through data to prove your baseless assertion wrong, bring your own data if you want to make a claim.
Here are some Indy 500 numbers prior to 1986
1973 - 16.5
1974 - 16.4
1975 - 14.9
1976 - 17.9
1977 - 15.6
1978 - 13.4
1979 - 13.5
1980 - 13.8
1981 - 12.8
1982 - 12.5
1983 - 14.1
1984 - 12.9
1985 - 9.7
While all of the other sports marquee events have their ups and downs, their mean value basically is staying the same.
Except Indy car which has been in a free fall since the ratings were started in 1973. The biggest significant drops occurred in 1986, the first year showing the race live on Sunday vs. tape delayed on Sunday night and 1996, the first year the IRL took over.
IMO, the best way to show some increases in Indy ratings would be to run the race on Saturday instead of Sunday and then show the race tape delayed on Saturday night. Moving the televising of the race live on Sunday during a major Holiday weekend killed off some of the ratings. Memorial day weekend is one of the big three during the summer when people go places or do things during the day time, they're not sitting in front of a TV set. Running the race during primetime would be an immediate answer and since the NASCAR 600 mile race is on Sunday, it would appear that Saturday would be the only answer. Besides, there's little going on at the track on Saturday anyway.
Most of you are missing the point. Anyone can cherry pick the largest sporting events in America then come up with a graph that shows the Indianapolis 500 is rated lower than the cherry picked events are, just like it mostly always has been. Most of the biggest events have maintained their relative positions. NASCAR has increased except in recent years.
Larger point:
1. Rank the top 50 rated television sports events in any given year.
2. View the relative position of the Indianapolis 500.
I do not know how to express that challenge in any simpler terms.
-The If We Only Had Some Brains Disciple of INDYCAR
None of us has the ratings of the top 25 or so football games.
But help me to understand the disconnect here. We've posted a LOT of numbers, none of which you seem to feel apply to this situation.
Do you feel the Indy 500 was never among the top 50 most watched sporting events? You've been shown cases where Indy outranked other notable events. Events that are presently among the top 50 most watched sporting events. You've also been shown the present list, where it does not rank among the top 50.
So how is it possible that you're not getting that the Indy 500 USED TO be among the top 50 most watched events. And no longer is????
Somebody... ANYBODY with the background you claim to have would see the obvious change in the stature of the event. The numbers are completely objective. Who, or why the event has cascaded so far down in popularity is up to your own conclusion. That it has fallen is simply undeniable.
I guess I just assumed Disciple once thought the Indy 500 was among the top 50 most watched sporting events. My bad.
It was, btw. I would have really thought you'd have been aware of that. I apologize for the error.
http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2011...cable-in-2011/
The website linked above shows the top sports events (ratings) for 2011. The Indy 500 ranked 94th last year, a notch above #95, the home run derby at the all star game.
Then go get the lists. YOU made the claim that ANY year would produce similar results. I challenged that claim by offering a specific year for comparison. Prove your claim that 1963's results are roughly equal to today's list. Surely a media professional would have little difficulty in providing the statistics he needs to back his claim in this matter.
Oh, so now the claim is from 1986 on. I guess your original claim was wrong. No surprise there.My thought is any such list will mirror the chart you provided that runs from 1986; i.e., relative to events that draw higher ratings, the Indy 500 will remain where it basically always has. No revelation there.
Them Giants are pretty popular!
43 -- Joe Gosek -- ALTA Team Scandia -- Lola/Ford
...in America...
F1 and Futbol pull huge global ratings....in America...
Those are interesting numbers. Good to know that I wasn't crazy for thinking that it wasn't that long ago that the Indy 500 ratings beat the Daytona 500.
There is absolutely no question that the Indy 500 has declined in viewership relative to other big sports events. I think that correlates directly to the split, as the pre-split and post-split numbers clearly seem to support.
Hopefully that is something that can be fixed. But denying this as fact is simply whistling past the graveyard.
Wow looks like the only one in the crapper is Indy.
The reality is the numbers are dropping yet you call the deal 'ahead of its time'. The only end result that can be drerived from that is the series will be broke 'ahead of its time'.
Sounds like it.
World Series is in the crapper too. Not enough Americans.
Lets put up lights and run the damn thing Saturday night. Guarantee it increases ratings.
Doug Boles estimates lighting the place, including lighting the parking areas, grandstand areas, under the stands... all of it would cost over $20,000,000.
Three kinds of people at TF: those who are tired of hearing how bad things are, those who never seem to tire of it, and those who inexplicably deny reality
"The series may be hesitant to say it, but the day is here for everybody that loves IndyCar racing to link arms and help each other out. Anybody who doesn’t want to do that needs to find something else to do with their time.”
-- Eddie Gossage, President, Texas Motor Speedway, ICONIC Advisory Committee & TrackForum member
I don't buy that at all.
I think a night oval would be awesome - or move it to Saturday evening.
See for yourself: http://www.wthr.com/story/17039254/w...type=printable
How much do you think it would cost to light... what, about 7-8 square miles? The crowd emptying out at midnight would be an absolute nightmare.
File this under: Happening, Never going to be
For some reason I cannot wrap my mind around that one.
You know, I was wrong about this. I found similar lists from 1997-2000, going down to the 75th most watched sporting events (give or take). The 500 was still a couple of points short of 75th, and even going back into the 80's I don't think the live coverage would have made top 50. Back when it was Top 50, I think the argument that the 3 channel universe really is a huge change from today's world makes sense.
The reality is by the end of the year Football will occupy something like the top 35-40 spots, barring some massive Olympic numbers (a once every four years exception). And it really has been that way for like 30 years.
So while it's fallen in the past 15 years, for sure... it's not like it was falling from a very high ranking. In this sense.
Sort of OT, but it amazes me how American rules football continually dominate the ratings & airwaves, but I admit to being out of touch. Oh well, go Ravens?
Corvette Racing - Chevrolet Corvette C6-R#3 Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen/Jordan Taylor, #4 Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Richard Westbrook-FC Bayern MunichNeuer - Lahm, Boateng, Dante, Alaba - Martinez, Schweinsteiger - Robben, Muller, Ribery - Mandzukic
I don't doubt any of this at all.
My argument has always been however that the 500 is not as popular as Daytona and other races. So in the world of racing it's secondary. In the world of sport it's barely on the map when it comes to the power house ratings of other sports.
In other words in our little world it's huge. Outside of that it's irrelevant to the majority of people in the US and world.
They wouldn't even need to do that. Just start it in the late afternoon and TV numbers would increase.
Plenty of daylight at the end of May. And, starting later makes a statement: We are not going to let our race schedule be dictated by when NASCAR races. Maybe if they had the fortitude to do things lkike this, more sponsors would take notice. Over the years, there has not been a lot of strong leadership and it has hurt AOW.
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